The present invention relates to a radar reflector structure of the type used, for example, to enhance the radar signature of an aircraft, ship or other vehicle.
The present applicant's earlier unpublished application number 8911792.3 and published application GB-A-2216725 disclose reflector structures formed from a number of trihedral re-entrant corner reflectors, each corner reflector comprising three planar elements lying at angles to each other. It has previously been proposed to form such structures either by folding from a single blank or by joining together a number of separate elements with hinges. The use of hinges has the advantage that the structure can be made to fold flat for storage prior to deployment. As described in GB-A-2216725 the structure may be made self-erecting by the use of springs fitted between the elements so as to pull them into the desired shape. Although mechanical hinges may be used these are costly to produce and because of their physical bulk place constraints on the location of the hinge axes. The assembling of the separate reflector elements and the fitting of the hinges also adds considerably to the time taken for manufacture.